Surprise?
by Gloomy Shadows
Summary: It's Sonic's birthday, and his friends want to throw him a surprise birthday party! But someone else has a birthday today, too, and he's not happy that Sonic's getting all the attention . . .! (Boom!Universe/Some Sonamy/One-Shot)


**_A/N: So, today's June 23rd, which is Sonic and Eggman's birthday, so I came up with this short-ish fic just for today._**

 ** _Okay, I will admit that this story is a bit odd, but in my defense, Sonic Boom has a totally different tone and feel with it than the normal games, and it's a tone that I've never really written before with, so it's sort of new to me. I tried to keep everyone as in-character as possible, though, and I tried to sort of give the story the television show kind of feel to it. I hope it turned out alright. (So, in other words, the plot is cheesy because the show is cheesy.)_**

 ** _Also, I apologize in advance for any mistakes/errors made in this story that I may have missed._**

 ** _It may contain some spoilers, too? It doesn't really reference the episodes that much, but some references have been made, so yeah, just putting that out there._**

* * *

It was hot out, and not the normal kind of 'hot' on any typical kind of summer day. Today, it was _hot_. Some of the villagers decided to stay indoors because of the humidity, trying to cool off by a fan as they relaxed on their couch with a book or some movies. Others were outside enjoying the weather with some fun, usual activities ones would do in times like these - such as playing volleyball, going for a walk with friends, or namely hanging out by the beach. At least, that was most of the villagers. There was one certain one going against the norm, and she was quite aware of that.

Letting out a small grunt, Amy clutched her hands tighter on the straps of the heavy bags she dragged along with her as she slowly but surely made her way back to her hut. It was a lot of work, she realized, but it'd all be worth it in the end . . . At least, if her plan worked out like she hoped it would.

Surely, nothing would go wrong, right? She had spent days planning this out, making sure that there would be no flaws. There was absolutely no way he wouldn't enjoy it . . . She could just imagine his expression of pure delight right now . . .

"Almost there," she reassured herself, looking ahead and straining her eyes to watch as her house grew closer and closer . . . It was still quite a way to go, but she was sure she could make it. Now, if only she could get there without any interruptions, all would be perfect.

There was only one problem in her way, though, right now, and that was the fact that her arms were getting sorer and sorer with the more steps she took . . . But that could be fixed, right?

Sighing, Amy decided that a break wouldn't hurt, and she momentarily loosened her grip and allowed the bags she had been carrying to drop carefully by her side. She then sighed once more and moved a hand to wipe at her forehead, which she retracted back almost instantly, disgusted. It was so hot out, she was sweating! And probably badly, too, if she could feel it through her glove's thick material!

Oh well, she could always take a shower once she came home . . .

"Hey, Ames, what'cha got there?"

Blinking in surprise, Amy turned to see the one-and-only Sonic the Hedgehog walking towards her, giving her a casual nod.

"Oh, this?" Amy asked nervously, her gaze fluttering about as she tried to think something up quickly on spot. She was not a good liar, though, which made this severely difficult. Especially because this was _Sonic_ she was talking to. She didn't like lying, and lying to _Sonic_ felt even worse. "Uh . . . it's nothing. Nothing important!"

She watched as the blue hedgehog stopped walking – having finally caught up to where she was – and gave her a confused look, not understanding why she was acting so skittish. He then brushed the oddity of her answer off.

"Well, erm, you need some help with that? I've got nothing better to do, and it looks like you need a hand-"

"No! I'm fine!" She moved quickly to lift up the bags as a demonstration. "See? I can do it! Really! I've carried heavier stuff! Plus, it's good exercise!"

Sonic didn't look completely convinced, taking in Amy's tired form and fatigued, shaky arms. After a while, though, and seeing how Amy really didn't look like she wanted his help for some reason, he soon gave in, saying, "Well, if that's what you want . . ."

"It is! Now, if you'll excuse me," she mustered all her might to walk passed him like carrying the bags were nothing, "I must be going now."

She mainly did it because she didn't want Sonic to have the surprise ruined, but in some way, she thought that she might've done this as a small way to prove to Sonic that she _was_ capable of taking care of herself, as well . . . Not that she wanted to gain his attention, of course, but it would be good to prove to Sonic that others could do things without his help! . . . especially with that incident of putting that one poor man down by calling him a normal guy . . . Too much high self-esteem was bad for a person, that whole issue seemed to prove.

Pressing her eyes shut tightly, Amy mentally berated herself for somehow managing to meet up with Sonic before continuing on her way quietly. Bumping into Sonic was not something she had planned! Someone would have some explaining to do . . .

. . .

"I'm sorry," Tails apologized honestly, looking tiredly between his project and Amy as he wiped at his forehead and placed down his wrench that he had been holding. He had been just finishing up a small surprise for Sonic, but because he had gotten so into his project and had been so distracted, he had totally forgotten that he'd promised Amy that he'd get Sticks and Knuckles to help out with Sonic's birthday party!

Yes, it was the Blue Blur's birthday, and being so, his friends all wanted to throw him something really special. He had never been really surprised by anything they had every thrown him before, so they had wanted to finally change that, even if only for one year. So this year, they wanted to throw him a surprise party. Usually, surprise parties weren't much of a surprise to Sonic, but this time, they made sure that it would be. They never spoke of it, hinted at it, they weren't placing the party at Sonic's house so there was no chance he'd run into the party mid-decorating, and they hadn't even acknowledged yet that it was his birthday.

Amy could admit that she felt a little bad about not doing so. Perhaps Sonic honestly felt right now that they completely forgot about his special day . . .

"I forgot – I was so busy working on this super cool gadget I made as an extra present on the side that I'm sure Sonic's going to love!" Tails explained sheepishly, not exactly meeting Amy's gaze, "I did just call Sticks and Knuckles over, though. They should be here any minute now . . ."

Amy sighed as she placed down the bags she had been carrying by her feet and nodded to the small fox. The boy had been so excited working on his present for Sonic . . . She couldn't really blame him.

"Hey! Tails? Amy? You guys here?" a voice suddenly called out from outside Amy's hut, causing both the pink hedgehog and yellow fox to look over to where the front door was in surprise.

"They got here much quicker than I expected." Amy exclaimed, her eye ridge lowering in confusion. Tails nodded his head from behind her, looking both surprised yet pleased. "Not that I'm complaining. We could use all the help we can get, and right away, too. It's almost the planned time for his party, and we can't mess with the schedule!"

The two then slowly made their way over to where the front door was.

There, they could hear the same voice call out again, "Hey! Anyone home?"

"It's open, Knuckles, you can come on in!" Amy called out.

There was a slight creaking noise as the door slowly opened. Then, there was an odd silence.

As the two met up with Knuckles and Sticks, they watched as the former looked around in surprise, taking in the decorations with a blink and the tilt of his head, "No! You guys didn't! You know my birthday's already passed! You shouldn't have!"

Upon hearing this, Amy groaned. Hadn't Tails told him why they were here? And wasn't it obvious that it was _Sonic's_ birthday, not his! _She_ knew it was his birthday! It was and always would be June 23rd!

Yes, June 23rd, one of her favorite days of the year . . . Not that it was so because Sonic's birthday was coincidentally on it or anything!

"No, Knuckles," Tails groaned from beside Amy, shaking his head, "It's _Sonic's_ birthday today, remember? And you guys are here to help us finish up the preparations!"

Knuckles' expression fell as he crossed his arms, pouting. So Sonic got this huge special party, but when it had been his birthday in February, he didn't get any massive party! Figures . . . Sonic was always to one who got everything! The attention for his jokes, the parties, the girls . . .

He then froze.

"Wait, so, today's Sonic's birthday?" he asked, making sure he had heard correctly. Once he had gotten a simultaneous 'yes' from Amy and Tails, he began to panic, "But I didn't get him anything! Why doesn't anyone tell me these things!"

Amy sighed as she watched the oldest teenager look around, startled, before turning her gaze over to Sticks.

"Do you have anything for Sonic?" she asked curiously as Tails moved to help out Knuckles, tilting her head a little.

"Yep, sure do," Sticks told Amy with a quick nod of the head, though her expression seemed off, as if she was suddenly distracted by something . . .

"Can I ask what is it?" She knew better than to ask people this, but with Sticks, she had to make sure she wasn't giving Sonic anything . . . "dangerous", with the lack of a better word.

"Nu-uh, can't tell you! It's a surprise," Sticks resorted, crossing her hands over her chest with a huff. And that, Amy knew, was the only answer she was going to get from the badger. Oh well, she could only hope now – for Sonic's sake – that it wasn't anything harmful. Sticks was full of surprises, and the concept of gift-giving and birthdays in general was relatively new to her. Amy couldn't really expect anything different from her best friend, she knew.

She looked back over at Knuckles and Tails. It seemed that the latter managed to calm down the former, who simply nodded to Tails' last sentence before moving to help out with some of the decorations . . .

She'd have to keep an eye on him. She had this all planned out perfectly, and she knew that Knuckles could be both clueless _and_ clumsy – not a good combination for decorating someone's house!

Amy walked over to one of her tables to pick up a checklist and quickly marked one of the last few boxes off.

"Got the rest of the supplies," she told herself aloud, "Now I just have to finish the decorating and the baking."

And with that, the four friends set off to work. Amy and Tails worked on finishing the last few foods for the party – not trusting Sticks nor Knuckles in this department – leaving the last two to finish off the last of the decorating.

. . .

"Oh, so they decided to throw Sonic a party, but they forgot that it's _my_ birthday, too!" Dr. Eggman growled out as he watched his screen with obvious distaste, his hands bawling into fists which tightened in both frustration and jealousy, even if he'd only admit to the first one. He had sent a small spy robot to, well, spy on Sonic and his friends, and what he saw didn't please him at all. "How _ungrateful_ of them!"

"But Sir," a new voice, Orbot, pointed out respectably from behind him as he and his fellow subordinate entered the room, " _We_ didn't forget your birthday!"

"Yeah, and we even made you a birthday cake, too!" Cubot chimed in, causing Eggman to grimace at the reminder. To put it simply, the robots' first attempt at making a cake did not go too well at all. Especially with Eggman's OCD for having everything perfect and neat. It was indeed not the right way to start your birthday right.

Eggman snorted and crossed his arms over his chest, resembling a pouting child as he replied, still staring with an annoyed look at the screen, "Yeah, well, you two don't count."

Upon hearing these familiar words, Orbot's head hung down low as he mumbled dejectedly, "We never do . . ."

"But you know what," Eggman interrupted, paying no attention to his creations, "If Sonic can have a party, then so can I!"

While Orbot grew cautious at these strange words, knowing that this probably didn't mean what was implied, Cubot raised his head in excitement, oblivious to his robot friend's suspicion, and asked, "Really? Are we really going to have our own party, Doctor? I always knew you were-"

"No, quiet." he hushed the robots, sending them both a stern look as he finally decided to turn away from the screen, now ignoring Sonic's friends' festivities, "We'll have none of that."

Both robots looked down to the tiled floor in disappointment, but they felt like they should've guessed that by now. Or at least, Orbot did. Cubot seemed to be genuinely disappointed, while Orbot himself was just barely, already having expected this. With Eggman, there really was no fun and games most of the time. At least, not with them. Sometimes, they envied Team Sonic's friendship. If only they could have a bond like that . . .

Eggman stood up taller, and then smirked evilly. It was an evil smile that unnerved Orbot and confused Cubot. This wouldn't end well. No, it wouldn't end well at all. At least, not for them.

"What I had in mind was leaning more towards to . . . throwing a party to crash Sonic's."

. . .

"He's coming!" Amy warned the others, shooting them all a warning glance as they all hid in various places, awaiting the blue hedgehog's entrance. They had gotten Amy to call Sonic over, with her telling him that what she had wanted from him was important, and he accepted the idea relatively quickly. Most likely because he had nothing else to do, since everyone had been ignoring him until now.

Footsteps . . . Then a confused knock on the door.

"Hey? Amy, you there?"

Silence greeted him. It would be no surprise if anyone talked.

"Huh. Guess not."

Amy blinked in surprise before gaining a startled look. The footsteps were shuffling . . . Was he . . . leaving?

She moved her head to shoot Tails a look, but he looked equally as shocked. What could they do in this sort of situation? They couldn't call out at him to come back, that'd ruin the surprise, but . . . If he left, there'd be no surprise at all!

And he was walking away now! They could all clearly hear him making his exit, much to their disappointment! No, this was not the way this was supposed to be! Argh, why hadn't she thought out this scenario! This hadn't came to mind while thinking over all the possibilities of what could happen during the party – just to be prepared!

"Sonic!" her voice betrayed her before she could clamp her mouth shut. Oh no . . .

Sonic must've stopped in his tracks, because there was silence for a bit. That, or he had already left. Amy seriously hoped that it was the first idea as she dreaded the second one.

"Amy?" Her hopes were lifted . . . somewhat, "Are you in there?"

This time, Amy knew better than to speak as she and her three friends didn't utter a word.

After a while, Sonic gave out an annoyed sigh, probably not liking the fact that he was being toyed with, and decided to open the door against his better judgment.

"Amy, are you-"

In a cheesy way, his four friends jumped out of there hiding places and yelled out a loud 'surprise' as Tails switched the main light to her hut on, all of them giving him cheery smiles . . . almost all. Knuckles had jumped facing the wrong way. Amy reached out a hand and quickly pulled Knuckles to face the right direction.

Sonic blinked at the scene before him before he tilted his head slightly, thinking.

"Not surprised?" Knuckles asked, frowning at Sonic's lack of a reaction.

"Not even a little?" Tails added hesitantly.

Sonic pressed his lips tightly together in thought as one of his hands fooled with his scarf before, "I kinda expected something at one point." When he saw the look of utter disappointment cross his friends' features, though, he quickly added, "But this is the . . . most surprising surprise I've had yet? At least with this one, I didn't walk into the middle of preparing for it like last year."

Amy's face fell slightly at the reminder. That had not been the best surprise party she'd thrown . . .

"But you guys did a nice job with this one. The totally ignoring my existence part sort of overplayed the "I don't want you to know we're throwing you a party or even remembered it's your birthday" scenario, though. And it doesn't help that you try to do this every year."

Amy and Tails looked away sheepishly at the last part. He did make quite a valid point.

The blue hedgehog then looked around curiously, eyeing decorations carefully placed around, practically making the room scream "it's Sonic's birthday!" His gaze then moved over to a large table where a lot of delicious-looking food were being displayed . . . Decorating and cooking were always Amy's specialties.

Sonic gave her an approving nod, and then proceeded to give the others one, "The place looks great, you guys. You've outdone yourselves this year; thanks!"

His friends smiled at the complement, seeing as their work was being not only acknowledged but appreciated.

"So do you want to open your presents now?" Tails asked, beaming brightly at his older brother. He seemed to be quite excited with the idea, most likely anticipating what will happen once Sonic opened his.

"Isn't it a bit early for that?" Sonic asked slowly with a raised eye ridge, "I just got here-"

"Nonsense!" Amy explained, motioning Sonic over to the multiple presents in one of the corners of the room. Only four friends here, yet the presents were, at least, triple that amount. What a spoiled hedgehog! "Let's open them right now!"

Sonic rubbed the back of his neck before nodding his head, "Okay, sure. Let's see what you've got me, then, this year!"

Though he wouldn't admit it, his voice, if one listened really closely, held some excitement. No matter how old he was, the thought of getting presents made him feel loved, and even if he didn't show it, he liked it when he knew others cared. Once, a long time ago, he had been a loner, but that had been changed, and he now appreciated the kindness and friendship given to him.

That, and he just simply wanted to open his presents.

. . .

"Uh . . ." Sonic uttered, looking down at the . . . "strange device" in his hands, not really knowing what to say or do. They had started to hand out presents right away, and the first one he had pulled out had been from non-other than Sticks.

Sticks had been thoughtful enough to give him a present, but it would help if he knew what it did . . . or what it was in the first place. It was just some sort of . . . box-thing, with some odd shiny . . . _thing_ inside it. And it gave off a weird feeling. It looked like a jewel, about the size of his palm. The appearance of it suspiciously reminded him of the purple shattered crystal they had to find the pieces of not too long ago . . . Except this thing was green; a bright kind of green that should've usually have given off some sort of innocent feeling, but for some reason didn't . . . He supposed the shiny part was his present, though he didn't really bother to fully open it, being cautious of her present.

Maybe it wasn't the best idea to have decided to open Sticks' present first, but with him sitting on a chair that had been pulled up by the door just for him, the others waiting anxiously for him to open their own presents . . . He couldn't do anything. Being at the center of their attention, he could only give them all a nervous smile. He knew he was the "birthday boy", but this was a bit awkward for him. They were forming a circle . . . and circles really weren't supposed to have a main point, yet here, right now, he felt as if they somehow made it possible. What was worse was that Sticks stood right before him in this little circle of theirs. Right were the two could make perfect eye contact . . .

"It's the thought that counts!" he heard Amy whisper to him from beside him, causing the blue hedgehog to sigh. He supposed Amy was right . . . Even if the present really was useless, and he didn't even understand what it did. Sticks did get him something, after all. And with her being so suspicious about all their traditions . . . it was a start, at least.

"Uh, thanks, Sticks. It's appreciated." he finally decided on his wording, giving her a nod of acknowledgement as he told her this.

Sticks nodded her head, though she seemed to suddenly hold a suspicious expression, "It has two uses! The obvious one, and the one where it'll keep _them_ away!"

Sonic's expression fell, recognizing the tone. It was that conspiracy tone again. "What?"

"The ones who will steal your presents from you and take your cake!"

It was best to not tell her no such thing existed, Sonic realized, placing the 'present' down by his side. Instead, he just sighed and gave her a nod, "Like I said, appreciated."

Sonic then moved over to fool with the presents. He finally grabbed at one and pulled it out. It was from Tails.

Upon reading who it was from, Sonic glanced up to give his little brother a small smirk, causing the fox to blush with embarrassment, though he could tell that the kid was interested in seeing Sonic's reaction.

"I've worked hard on that one," he explained to Sonic, "So I hope you like it."

"I'm sure I will," Sonic assured Tails as he slowly moved his hands to open his gift. Usually, he would've just ripped off the wrapping paper quickly to just get it over with, but he couldn't help but want to tease his best friend, and so he decided to open the present in an agonizingly slow fashion.

Once he was finished with the paper, he carelessly tossed it to the side and looked at the box that was inside it. Blank, plain, and simple. But whatever was inside it probably wasn't. He moved to open the lid-

-And as soon as he did, the box simply blew up in his hands, causing Sonic to jump back. "What the-?"

"Oh, my, my, are we exchanging gifts already?" A taunting voice exclaimed from nearby the shocked group of friends, "How lovely. I came just in time!"

Sonic's head moved upwards from the entrance of Amy's hut to shoot Eggman a dark glare. He just ruined his best buddy's gift! And he had probably been working days on it, too, knowing him! And now he wouldn't even get the chance to know what it was! Let alone use it or whatever to make him happy! Just because _Eggface_ shot at it!

"Well, while I'm here, I suppose I'll just give you yours, then!"

And from behind Eggman's party of robots, a large metallic beast walked forward. Oddly, though, the robot seemed to be in the shape of some sort of animal, but he couldn't exactly tell what kind of animal right away, as its large size and disproportionate limbs for attacking messed with its image.

"Meet my best beast 'bot, Bear-Bot – note the carefully done alliteration to make my taunting more enjoyable to say!" Eggman's hands motioned over to where the robot was and smirked evilly, "It is specially designed to use its brute force to destroy anything and everything in its path! I may have failed with Cowbot while making an animal robot, but I won't with this one!"

And with that, "Bear-Bot" let out an obnoxiously loud roar as it began to stomp it's way over to where Sonic, Amy, Knuckles, Sticks, and Tails were.

"Uh-oh," Sonic uttered under his breath as he dodged a large bronze paw that whacked at him, which broke the frame of Amy's hut's door and a bit of its walls as it tried to aim correctly at the fast-moving blue of blue.

Luckily, Sonic was too fast for it, and his friends had scurried out of the way and off to the side for safety. Unluckily, Amy's home was getting trashed in the process of this battle.

Amy let out a loud groan as she saw this. This thing was ruining her house!

That wasn't too big of a surprise, though. It was pretty huge! It was around the size of Burnbot - if not larger - and it was a bit clumsy, too! And since it was _much_ bigger of a "guest" than the house was made for, everywhere where it moved, it seemed to destroy stuff - namely Amy's walls and furnature, at the moment.

Sonic himself shook his head and questioned, annoyed, "Are you seriously running out of ideas, Eggface? Like, can you make something any more lame?"

"I believe we have had this discussion before," Eggman said, stroking his mustache with a smirk, "And you'll soon find that he's not that that 'lame', like you said he was."

With a grunt of disbelief, Sonic launched himself outside and at the robot-

-but found himself bouncing instantly off the machine's metal and roughly onto the ground.

As he tried to regain his bearings, which was hard for him for some reason, the metallic bear roared loudly once more and moved to slam Sonic further into the ground. Before he could do so, though, Amy had already taken her hammer and had smacked the arm away from the blue hedgehog. But that's all it had done. It hadn't even dented the metal like it should've!

"Brilliant creation now, huh? He may be 'lame', but I assure you, you can't damage it!" Eggman sneered from the sky, keeping a safe distance from the heroes on the ground.

"Oh yeah?" Knuckles cried out moving over to where the robot was, taking Eggman's words as a challenge.

Clenching his hands into tight fists, he mustered all of his strength together and punched the metal, creating a loud, echoing noise that hurt everyone's ears.

Wincing, the red echidna pulled back a now throbbing fist and eyed for any damage he should've dealt. None. It was completely dent-free.

Knuckles blinked in shock at this, and because he was so surprised that his attack did nothing, he didn't see a large metallic arm coming towards him . . . which momentarily knocked him right out.

"Oh no, this isn't good," Tails breathed as he watched Knuckles slam into a wall. His gaze then travelled over to Sonic and Amy, with the latter helping the Blue Blur up . . . "He must have some sort of weakness," the fox exclaimed desperately as he watched the robot crush the remaining presents – probably at Eggman's command to ruin their party further – and move towards destroying the food . . .

"I told you all, but you didn't listen!" Sticks screeched, looking frustrated as she angrily threw her boomerang fruitlessly at the bear's armor. "I said that they'd steal his present and take his cake!"

The boomerang bounced off the armor noisily and then returned to its owner's hand.

"He stole his presents away from him," she motioned to the destroyed wrapping paper on one corner of the room, "And now he's taking his cake from him!"

The robot was curiously holding up the table, as if debating on how it should destroy the food. And on that table was coincidentally the cake. And with a shrug, the robot merely threw aside the table, breaking both it and one of Amy's walls.

"And yet no one _ever_ listens to me!"

Tails frowned as he heard this, thinking over her words before . . .

"Wait! But you said that your present is supposed to keep him away from Sonic?"

Sticks nodded her head, still quite frustrated.

Confused, Tails rushed over to where the device was. Sure enough, after looking it over, he suddenly realized . . .

"Hey! I know this crystal! I've heard of this thing before!" he opened the box and held the odd oval jewel tightly as he yelled to Sticks, "It can interfere with signals and programming, causing it to, in the end, overload with . . ."

Tails' eyes widened in surprise, "That's brilliant!"

He then turned over to where the robot was now. It was fighting with Sonic and Amy, who suddenly looked quite exhausted . . . And there was Knuckles in the background, slowly regaining consciousness . . . It was worth a shot.

"Hey! You guys!" Tails cried out, desperately trying to catch their attention. When Sonic quickly looked over to where the young fox-boy was, he continued, "You need to get this as close as you possibly can to his main control system! This'll stop him!"

Before Sonic could react, Tails threw Sticks' present at the blur of blue, who caught it, looking a bit confused.

"If you're sure . . ." Sonic muttered under his breath before, "Amy, you've gotta distract him!"

"I'm on it!" she assured Sonic, clutching at her hammer tighter as she whacked the robot at his side.

Angrily, the robot let out a roar and tried to attack Amy. It managed to hit the hammer out of the pink hedgehog's hand and corner her . . .

Growling, Sonic leapt up on the robot, though he suddenly realized that he didn't exactly know where to put the rock! Being this close with Sticks' gift suddenly seemed to make it confused, and Sonic figured that was one of the things it was supposed to do, but confused wasn't good enough! But he didn't see any other opening other than the mouth . . .

The robot bear shrugged Sonic off while he was distracted, causing him to thud loudly to the ground. It then turned to Amy, who was trying to reach for her hammer . . .

But it was too far, being outside the building, and the robot's powerful jaws moved to bite down hard on her arm. Before Amy could do anything, it already got a pretty tight, painful grip, causing her to squeak no matter how hard she tried to hold make any sort of sound. She tried to force the robot off, but its grip wouldn't budge. It's red eyes were surprisingly cold, and the squirming just seemed to make it want to bite down harder . . .

"Amy!"

Before she could react, Sonic threw the strange device at the robot's head, causing it to let her go, yet again in a slight state of confusion. And that was enough time for Sonic to run, pick it up once more, and shove it down the robot's throat, hoping for the best.

It proceeded to make a noise . . . A somewhat . . . _familiar_ noise.

"Incoming!" Sonic cried out, warning everyone as he took Amy quickly in his arms and ran out the hut. Just as the five friends made it outside, the robot simply combusted into a large explosion.

Placing a secretly flustered Amy back down, Sonic glanced over at the destroyed hut, confused. "What just happened?"

Tails was quick to explain, "Well, I don't exactly know what the gift was supposed to do other than this, but the thing that Sticks gave you . . . It had some sort of . . . I don't know how to explain it simply. Erm, it has a special jewel that I thought didn't exist that causes interferences in robots. Actually any technology, but robots count. It clouds up it's intentions and orders and messes with it's brain until it just completely "loses it". I guess it overwhelmed the machine, causing it to, well . . ." The fox motioned to the rubble.

"Explode?" Sonic offered, and Tails nodded his head.

"To put it simply, yeah."

"My hut!" Amy cried out in shock, staring at the rubble that was once her house, interrupting Sonic and Tails' conversation, "Oh no, everything's ruined!"

Sonic pulled at his scarf as he watched Amy frown, knowing this was slightly his fault . . . He was pretty sure he knew the reason behind this attack . . .

"Incoming robots!" Tails exclaimed before Sonic could say anything, causing the five to look over to where Eggman and his minions were. They had forgotten about the extra robots Eggman had brought with him!

"You!" Eggman cried out, shocked and angry, "You destroyed my robot! Grr . . . minions, attack them!"

It was too bad they weren't much of a fight. At least, too bad for Eggman. With a few punches, spin dashes, hammer swings, boomerang throws, and some quick tinkering, they were all laying on the ground, useless and motionless.

Eggman could only watch in silence.

His robot was totaled . . . His minions were destroyed . . . And now Sonic and his four friends were walking closer . . .

The doctor, as a last ditch effort, shot at the Blue Blur from the Eggmobile, but the shot sadly missed, giving Sonic enough time to trash the transportation vehicle.

"No! My Eggmobile!" Eggman cried out desperately, having been thrown out of it as it had been attacked. Right now, he was running towards it, looking over all the damage it had dealt, "No, you're to beautiful to be hurt like this!"

Watching the scene smugly, Sonic eyed Eggman over for a bit before he looked over to his friends. Knuckles seemed to be much happier now, having finally destroyed something, Tails looked content, Sticks looked smug as well, having proved everyone she had been right, and Amy . . .

"Hey," Sonic mumbled quietly to the pink hedgehog while the others were distracted, "I . . . I know your house is totaled, and it'll take a while to get it fixed . . . So you can – if you want, of course – stay with me until . . . _you know_ . . ."

In return, Sonic received a bright smile and a quiet thank you, but the exchange was awkward and embarrassing for both, and the two looked away after a while, averting each other's eyes.

"Now what're we going to do?" Knuckles asked, looking around.

"I dunno, I guess we could go some place out to eat or something." Sonic said with a shrug, and Tails nodded in agreement to his older brother's words. "Or we could go by the beach. The weather's right enough for that. We still have a whole day ahead of us, so why waste it?"

"I . . ." Amy couldn't find the words to say. Everything was ruined! How could he still be happy!?

"Hey, I know you meant well. Party or no party, we can still have a good time!" Sonic explained with a small smile, giving Amy a nod of approval, "Besides, 'it's the thought that counts', right?"

Amy glanced down, looking embarrassed as she murmured quietly, "I guess so . . ."

"And hey," Sonic continued, tugging at his neckerchief in thought, "We can all go to Meh Burger and get some chow there. We can celebrate there, if you really want to have a party."

With murmurs of agreement, the five friends moved to leave as if nothing had just happened, with Sticks muttering some more conspiracies under her breath, Knuckles and Tails up in front, chatting casually, and Amy in the back with Sonic.

After taking a few steps, though, Sonic stopped in his tracks, which caused Amy to stop, too, noticing that Sonic was falling behind.

"Is there something wrong, Sonic?" she asked her friend with concern in her tone.

"Ah, it's nothing . . ." Sonic then looked off to the side, as if he was contemplating something . . . "Hey, um, you go with the others. I'll catch up. I got something I need to take care of."

Amy gave Sonic a confused look, but she didn't question him. She simply nodded her head slowly before rushing to catch up with Sticks.

Seeing as they were all leaving, Sonic finally took the time to look over his shoulder to where Eggman was, the latter tinkering on his Eggmobile so that it would work long enough for him to get back to his lair.

"You really need to work on that aim." Sonic informed him, placing his hands casually by his hips as he watched Eggman snort at his words.

"I didn't come here to be insulted. Just let me finish up here, I'm almost done." the Doctor grumbled quietly.

Sonic watched him for a bit longer before he shrugged and moved his head forward, deciding it was best to just catch up with his friends. But before he did that . . .

"And by the way, Eggman, in case you're wondering, I did remember." Sonic explained calmly.

"What're you talking about?" Eggman asked, still not wanting to talk to Sonic after yet another humiliating defeat.

"Happy Birthday, Egghead."

Eggman froze, completely shocked. But how . . .!? He had thought that . . .

" . . . Happy Birthday, you blue pineapple . . ."


End file.
